How the Race was Won: Bullseye Points Race

After a months-long drought, it finally happened – I won a Zwift race! Here’s the cool part: even before the win, this was one of the best race experiences I’ve had on Zwift. As soon as I discovered the Bullseye Points Race and signed up for it, I had a feeling it was going to be special, for at least three reasons:

1. It was my first race on a route I “created” in Zwift: the Seaside Sprint route. Originally created as a Rebel Route, Zwift turned it into an event-only route a few months ago.
2. It was a points race, and I’ve never done one of those on Zwift.
3. I lead a weekly “Sprintapalooza” ride which rotates between various sprint-friendly routes. We’ve ridden this exact course several times, sprinting each lap just like we’d be doing in this race. I was well-prepared!

About the Race Format

The Bullseye Points Race was started by The Herd’s James Bailey last summer. James told me, “I love running races that are a little bit different to the norm.”

The race begins with a lead-in, followed by 6 laps of Seaside Sprint for a total length of 40.6 km (25.2 miles). This is a points race: at the end of each lap, riders are awarded points for their order across the line. 1st place gets 50 points, 2nd place gets 49 points, all the way down to 50th place getting 1 point. The final lap is worth double points.

Powerups are awarded at both banners on the circuit, giving riders ample opportunity to get a useful powerup for each lap’s sprint. Points are calculated post-race by ZwiftPower.

[adinserter block=”7″]

Warmup

After signing up for the event, I hopped onto Zwift a bit early. The day before had been an easy one – a sunny Z1/2 outdoor ride. So I knew my sunburned legs would be fairly rested, and I wanted to get some decent miles in today.

I chewed three pieces of caffeine gum about an hour before the event. I’ve been working on dialing in my caffeine dose for Zwift races, and it seems that a little more caffeine taken a little earlier than usual is probably more effective. Of course, I also applied some PR lotion to the legs. Then it was off to Tempus Fugit for ~15 miles of warmup.

The Start

This was the easiest race start I’ve had in a long time. Most races which begin on the Watopia pier in the “reverse” direction (which takes you immediately up a shallow climb and onto The Esses) start pretty hard and fast. But our group of 63 B’s was quite tame – which was smart! I averaged 323 watts for the first 2 minutes to stay with the front pack.

We went through the sprint banner before the Italian Villas (which is the lap banner for this route, and thus the finish line for the race) and our first lap began.

A couple riders were pushing hard on the front, and eventually jumped off, never to be seen again. They were clearly sandbaggers/flyers, and our group wisely didn’t chase, so their efforts didn’t affect us. Smart group!

As we hit The Esses on the first lap, I began to calculate my strategy for the first sprint. Holding a draft boost powerup, I knew that my best sprint time would come from sprinting in the draft. But unlike Sprintapalooza, this event isn’t about your best sprint time – it’s about who is first over the line! I had to shift my mindset. I decided I would try to stay near the front of the pack and follow the wheels of anyone who jumped a little early on the descent into the sprint, then if I came around them during the actual sprint – that would be a good thing.

Going off of the results on ZwiftPower (which exclude riders who were disqualified and those not signed up for ZwiftPower), I got first place on the first lap. (In the actual race, I was in a pack of three that were within a wheel of each other over the line.)

On the second lap, I got first place again. Thanks for the aero powerup, Zwift gods! This was going well.

The Middle

Our group of 63 was reduced to 20 before we finished the third lap. I popped my feather powerup on the climb before the drop into the sprint, and finished second behind Luke Chronister, a rider who was finishing near the front of each lap. He was definitely a contender, although that didn’t change my approach to each lap’s sprint.

I must confess, while there were certain names I kept seeing near the front, I didn’t have the mental fortitude to mark particular riders. My goal was simply to finish as close to the front on each sprint as possible. Without a live view of the points totals, this was really all I could do! In between sprints I did my best to hold my position mid-pack – out of the wind, but close enough to the front to avoid being caught behind leg-sapping gaps.

As is typical with circuit races, a lap pattern emerged. Immediately after the sprint, there would be a breakup of the front group, with ~5 riders (the strongest sprinters) getting a slight gap on the other ~15. Then as we crossed the Italian Villa cobbles, the groups would come back together, and some nutcase would hammer hard at the front as we descended the twisty dirt road to the Volcano land bridge. The pace would ease up over the land bridge, then ratchet up again as we hit the ramp into the Volcano and the steps up to the Volcano banner. We’d be strung out as we crossed that banner, then we’d come back together before crossing the glass bridge back to The Esses.

The pace wasn’t crazy, but you had to be careful not to get caught out when the group surged. These little surges slowly whittled the group down, dropping 1-2 riders from our front group each lap.

Lap 4’s sprint wasn’t pretty. ZwiftPower puts me at 4th place, but in-game it was more like 15th, as I recall. It was another sprint without a powerup, and I got swamped mid-sprint by the pack.

I took first in the Lap 5 sprint, with Chronister just .033s behind me. That was a close one!

The Finish

The final lap began tamely enough, but when we hit the ramps up to the Volcano banner the group surged hard. We were strung out, with a strong group of 4 up the road and my group of 5 chasing.

Knowing I was in contention for the podium, I gave it all I had, pushing ~350 watts for about 90 seconds. Between my efforts and a couple of other riders in our group, we managed to reel in the group ahead, coming together in a pack of 10 riders for the final rollercoaster ride through The Esses.

I was hoping for an aero helmet powerup for the finish, but the Volcano banner gave me the draft boost instead. So be it. We hit the final ramp up before the descent into the final sprint, and riders began to hammer. Powerups were flying everywhere, and we caught a group of ~10 C’s at the same time, adding to the chaos! It was a pell-mell dash to the line, and somewhere in that mix I activated my draft boost powerup, shifted, stood up, and hammered to the finish. I crossed the line in 6th place according to Zwift’s results, but of course the final points results were what really mattered.

See my activity on Strava >
See my activity on Zwift >
See race results on ZwiftPower >

Final Results

Race results weren’t immediately available, because they require the race organizer to do some manual work on ZwiftPower after the race ends. I crossed my fingers and headed for the shower, knowing I had finished near the top in most of the sprints, but unsure if other riders had done better.

Within 30 minutes of the race ending, race organizer James finalized the results and sent me a message on Facebook: “Congrats on the B win.” Hurray! I came away with 344 points from a maximum of 350 available… enough for 1st place.

Thanks for a Thankless Task

I chatted with James a bit to learn about the process of finalizing the results. It would have been a bummer to wait for hours to see final results, but he had them finalized faster than you see in outdoor races. He’s a perfect example of how Zwift’s community race organizers put in hard work every day to make these events a fun experience for everyone.

James actually organizes 5 different weekly race series for The Herd Racing League. Impressive. Thank you, James – and thanks to all the event organizers on Zwift.

Takeaways

My biggest takeaway from this race was that it was super-fun, and I’ll be back for more.

Secondly, it’s interesting to look at my peak sprint power as the race progressed:

• Sprint 1: 847 watts
• Sprint 2: 834 watts
• Sprint 3: 740 watts
• Sprint 4: 733 watts
• Sprint 5: 728 watts
• Sprint 6: 631 watts

Definitely fatiguing steadily, which means this race was really good training! My strength is sprinting, but doing so repeatedly, with race-level wattage in between, was a new challenge.

Points Races: My New Favorite?

This event was a blast, and I’ll definitely be doing it more often. It’s a much more interesting race format than the typical “sit in until the final sprint” flat scratch race. After just one race, it’s clear to me that a whole different set of strategies are involved, with smart powerup usage being key and long attacks mid-race paying off, even if they don’t stick.

My head is already spinning with ideas for how these events could be taken to the next level. What if we could see the points totals in real-time next to each rider’s name? What about team competition? What if the race included the ghost and burrito powerups, making those sprints even more strategic?

For another perspective on how these races unfold, watch veteran racer Casey Schumm do the A race on his Twitch stream below (the event begins about 19 minutes in). He and three other riders break away for the first four laps, and one of the riders in that breakaway group ends up winning overall:

Your Thoughts

Have you tried any Zwift points races, and if so, which ones? Got any tips? Share your comments below!